Half-Life 2: Episode One News

05/24/06 -- Half-Life 2: Episode One has gone gold.

02/11/06 -- "Aftermath" is officially called Half-Life 2: Episode One.

Press Release --

"Aftermath" will be the first expansion game for Half-Life 2. They say it will pick right up where HL2 left off in the story. The game will involve a lot of gameplay with Alyx, and a lot of the focus will be put on her. Here is a quote from an interview about the new game:

"[Aftermath] deals with the events and issues set in motion during Half-Life 2. You've done
critical damage to the Citadel. The whole place is going to go up, taking out City 17 and what's in its
immediate radius. You and Alyx are leading the flight from the city getting up close and personal with
some of the creatures and sights from the end of the game."

My Half-Life 2 Episode One Review

This game was $20 and is said to be the first of three episodes to be released after Half-Life 2. The packaging this time around was a lot better than Half-Life 2. This time it came in a double wide DVD case with the game on DVD and the quick reference card. I'm glad it came on DVD instead of CD because Half-Life 2 comes on FOUR CDs!

Since I already have the other games and Steam already installed, installation was easy. I did get an odd blue screen of death the first time around but I got it working. I will note this, the first time I went to run the game, a warning pops up telling me I should update my video drivers. I told it to ignore and played anyway, but found the game to be extremely laggy in certain areas. I finally updated the drivers and this took care of the problem.

The gameplay is just like Half-Life 2. This game really solidifies the relationship between you and Alyx. The entire game you play with Alyx at your side. She really helps out shooting enemies too. Most of the time I'll let her kill everyone because she has unlimited ammo and I don't. The only time you leave her side is when you have to complete a puzzle or something.

They made the game out to sound like it would last 6 hours, but it doesn't. I took my time the first time through and it lasted about 4 hours. If you recall with Half-Life 2: The Lost Coast, they put in a commentary track that you could play while playing the game. They did this with Episode One as well. After completing the game first time through, you can play it through again, hopefully on Hard difficulty, and with commentary on. This gives the game great replay-ability, and you get to learn secrets about the game when it was being made.

The last "level" of this episode is actually the Episode Two Teaser Trailer. You get to see this when you complete the game the first time. It shows you some of what happens in Episode Two and wets your appetite for the next episode. That video is listed below to download, but beware, it contains spoilers, especially if you haven't played Episode One.

They said Episode Two should be coming out in late 2006 probably before Christmas. The third episode will come out sometime in 2007. Valve released a comment saying the rate it takes to make an entirely new game, and at the rate they were going, it would of been 2022 before Half-Life 3 could be released. That is why they are doing episodes. It is kind of an experiment but it allowed the creators to get more games out there quickly instead of years later.

How to extract sound files from game

2. Start program, navigate to /steam/SteamApps folder

3. Double-click "episode 1 shared"

4. Expand /root/episodic/sound

5. Right-click selected files and choose Extract.

Game Screenshots (I took these)

Pre-release game Screenshots

Videos

Episode Two Teaser (SPOILERS!) -- 52MB (right-click, Save Target As...)

Launch Teaser #4 -- 29MB (right-click, Save Target As...)

Launch Teaser #3 -- 25MB (right-click, Save Target As...)

Launch Teaser #2 -- 17MB (right-click, Save Target As...)

Launch Teaser #1 -- 26MB (right-click, Save Target As...)

Episode One Official Trailer -- 27MB (right-click, Save Target As...)

Aftermath spoiler -- 6.88MB (right-click, Save Target As...)

Levels

Maps

ep1_background_01 (unplayable level)
ep1_background_01a (unplayable level)
ep1_background_02 (unplayable level)